


The Last Hurrah

by Bethania_Nathaniel



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Confusion, F/M, Fluff, whouffaldi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-23 00:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2526866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bethania_Nathaniel/pseuds/Bethania_Nathaniel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor takes Clara to a practically utopian planet, but Clara feels uneasy. Why doesn't she believe his smile?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Hurrah

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if this counts as a crossover, but it's based on the scene in Howl's Moving Castle (the movie) when Howl takes Sophie to see his private garden.  
> It's my first attempt at Whouffaldi, hope you enjoy!

Once Clara entered the TARDIS, the Doctor snapped the door shut from the console and immediately pulled down the hand-brake, zooming away.  
“You’re enthusiastic today!” she yelled over the groaning engines, as she clung onto the handrail. He raised an eyebrow.  
“I’m always enthusiastic,” he said in a monotone.  
Clara rolled her eyes. “So where we going?”  
The Doctor smiled – but what was wrong with it? “Somewhere very special.”  
The engines screeched to a halt.  
“Ladies first.”  
An unreadable face. What had changed? Clara had gotten so used to this Doctor that she knew every crease on his ancient skin. Why was he suddenly closed off?  
“Okay?” she said dubiously, finding the handle and turning it.

The smell hit her first.  
Gentle fragrances – lavender, daffodils, roses – billowed around her, melting into the breeze wafting past her face.  
She winced at the bright sunlight, after the dark interior of the TARDIS. She took a step out, squinting as her boots dropped into soft grass. Her eyes adjusted, and she could fully appreciate the paradise the Doctor had brought her to.  
Field after field of red grass, meadows bursting with blossoms – in the distance Clara could even see a brook running besides a small stone house.  
“Go on, look around,” he said from the console. He hadn’t moved. Clara looked back at him.  
“Aren’t you coming?”  
“In a minute. Off you go.”  
She wanted to stay, to ask him what was wrong, but everything outside was calling her, asking her to explore. She turned back around and started ambling across the fields, towards the house.

As she got closer, she noticed that the flowers had stopped being recognisable. From a distance they were standard roses and pansies, but when she crouched down and inspected them, they were nothing of the sort. Almost...alien.  
“Guessing this isn’t Earth, then,” she said to herself, approaching the steps of the house. When she got to the front door, she paused.  
It was wooden – very old wood, practically falling to pieces – and covered in odd markings.  
Clara waited patiently for a moment. Nothing happened.  
“Why aren’t you translating??” she asked the door, twisting the locked handle, hoping that it would answer. When it didn’t, she began wracking her brain.  
“Is it...I dunno, Elvish or something? Mellon.” The door didn’t budge. “Worth a try.”  
She looked around, saw a small window next to the door, and decided that the logical thing to do was to cover her hand in her jumper and punch a hole in it.  
Clambering across the broken glass, she fell inside the house. It was dark and quiet.  
Walking forwards, she saw a table covered in dusty notebooks. She picked one up and flicked through it. “The same language...” she murmured, before walking around the rest of the house.  
It was very small – there was only the room she was in, a small bedroom and a bathroom – and nothing else out of the ordinary. It was...nice, she had to admit. But decidedly peculiar.  
She examined the door from the inside. “No markings,” she said, running her hand over the wood. She tried the door again and this time it opened. As soon as she stepped outside, it slammed shut behind her. A faint hum emitted from the wood.  
“That doesn’t sound good,” Clara said warily, before running down the steps and making her way towards the brook across the meadow.

“Do you like it?”  
She was sitting by the brook, skipping pebbles across the water. The Doctor stood right behind her.  
“It’s wonderful,” she said, not looking up. She could see his face etched across the rippling water – he looked peaceful.  
“I’m glad.” This time Clara could hear the resigned note. She stood up, sighing.  
“All right, what is it?” she said, facing him.  
“What’s what?” Confused. Frowning.  
“All of this,” she said, gesturing around her. “Are we in the Promised Land or something?”  
He barked out a laugh. “No. Anything but.” He reached out a hand to her, and there it was again – that odd smile. It made Clara feel uneasy.  
“A better comparison would probably be Atlantis,” he continued as he guided her across the field. “This is a lost planet – well, it’s more of a moon, really. Think of it as an interstellar island. One of the ones that used to be a peninsula, but the land bridge eroded over time, estranging it from the home world.”  
“But moons can’t be peninsulas.”  
“Will you let me finish?” he said, annoyed but somehow pleased that she’d interrupted. “There used to be a home base for this world, but it disappeared. It got trapped in a time lock.”  
“So kind of like Gallifrey?”  
“Exactly like Gallifrey.” The Doctor turned to face her. “This is, well, it’s going to sound a bit pompous-”  
“Just get on with it!” she said, poking him.  
“Well, it’s my private moon of sorts. My family owned it. When the Time War started, I quarantined it in this universe so that it wouldn’t be harmed.”  
Clara gasped. “So part of Gallifrey always existed!” A thought occurred to her, and she suddenly pointed at the Doctor. “That’s why the TARDIS didn’t translate. It’s in Gallifreyan!”  
“Precisely.”  
“But this is amazing! You actually own a planet. How come you’ve never shown me this before?”  
“This is the first time I’ve been back here.” The Doctor looked straight into her eyes. “I was given this place by my uncle when I started university. It was my private study. You can understand how painful-” He cut off, looking away.  
She reached out a hand and caressed his cheek, smiling up at him. He looked down, smiling back, and they stood together for a moment.

Suddenly the Doctor broke away, walking back towards the TARDIS.  
“But now you’ve seen it! And when you get your own crude form of space transport-”  
“How am I-”  
“Go talk to Torchwood. They’re geniuses at crap pieces of technology. I can’t believe you people actually buy their junk. Anyway, my point is that you can come back here whenever you like!” He looked back at her. “This can be yours now. It’s my gift to you.”  
He continued walking, but Clara stopped, unmoving.  
“Doctor...” she said, biting her lip. “Doctor, you’re scaring me.”  
He spun around, startled. “What?” he asked, his eyes wide.  
“Why are you doing this?”  
“I’m not doing anything. Do I always have to have an ulterior motive?”  
“Yes.”  
He half-ran towards her, grabbing her hands. “Well this time, I don’t,” he said quietly.  
“But it’s like...”Clara looked down, blinking hard. After a few moments, she pulled her head up fiercely and said, “It’s like you’re trying to say goodbye."  
The Doctor opened his mouth, but she covered it with her hand. “I know what’s wrong with your smile now. Your eyes are sad, so don’t try to deny it. Just...just tell me the truth.”  
“I weel eef yew gaet yeur hand awff miy face.”  
She laughed for a second, before pulling her hand away. The Doctor held it again.  
“The truth?”  
She nodded.  
“I’m planning on leaving you very soon.”  
“Okay.” She gripped his hands tighter, but didn’t say anything else.  
“To join a Russian travelling circus.”  
The Doctor guffawed as she shook her head.  
“What am I going to do with you?” she said, exasperated.  
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, and began leading her back across the flowing red grass to the TARDIS.


End file.
